(NEW YORK) Yesterday evening, Young Democrats in several counties throughout New York conducted straw polls on the primary in the race for Attorney General. Straw polls are generally informal ways to gauge opinion within a group. These straw polls have become an annual tradition for NYS Young Dems, after the Manhattan chapter conducted a successful straw poll on last year’s New York City-wide races.

Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice won this year’s Young Democrats straw poll by taking 37% of the votes across the participating chapters. Participants noted that the most important issues to them for the next Attorney General included, LGBT and civil rights, environmental protection, rural expansion, consumer protection and campaign finance and ethics reforms. Rice was noted for her recruiting of LGBT prosecutors and plans to empower the Attorney General’s Office to investigate government corruption. Senator Eric Schneiderman finished in second place with 36%, Sean Coffey in third with 18%, Richard Brodsky in fourth with 6% and Eric Dinallo finished last tallying only 3%.

NYSYD President Kevin Lawrie said, “Although NYSYD does not endorse any candidate in primary elections, we certainly look forward to seeing if our straw poll results will mirror those of the rest of the Democratic Party in just a few days. Conducting straw polls like these gives young voters a hands-on way to familiarize themselves with the issues in all of our communities. This experience was extremely informative and we all look forward to conducting more of these polls in the future.”

Taylor Stirek, the President of the Manhattan Young Democrats, tabulated the results for the entire state. “Manhattan Young Democrats were very excited with the success of our second annual straw poll! We are always so thrilled when the Counties work together to create such a successful event. It will be interesting to see how our polls match up to the primary numbers later in September, we want to stress how important the youth vote is to the political system and we’re honored to be a catalyst for proactive involvement!”

Brooklyn Young Democrats President Amanda Pizzuti said, “The Brooklyn Young Democrats’ Straw Poll had great turn-out for one of NYSYD‘s newest chapters. The majority of the votes cast went to Kathleen Rice with Sean Coffey finishing a close second, the majority of Coffey’s total votes. Members of BYD certainly felt that tonight was reflective of how the two candidates have been focusing on issues important to young voters like LGBT rights and restoring confidence in Albany.”

Queens County President Costa Constantinides said, As the largest and fastest growing demographic in the Democratic Party, an event like this offers young adults an opportunity to give our opinions on the candidates of our party.

Polls were also conducted in Westchester County, home of Assemblyman Brodsky and Mr. Coffey. Chelsea Kadish, the President ofWYD said, With two of the candidates being from Westchester, the members of our chapter felt it was extremely important to join in on the straw poll. It will certainly be interesting to see where our neighbors will stack up in just a few days.

Straw poll events were held in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester (joined by Mr. Brodsky), sampling a large portion of Young Democrats involved with NYSYD. The Manhattan Young Democrats also polled on the primary race in the 33rd State Senate District between Gustavo Rivera and Pedro Espada, resulting in a unanimous defeat of Senator Espada.

Both of these sets of results demonstrate the feelings of a youth community in New York that is passionately in pursuit of pragmatic, practical and progressive elected officials that will establish their commitment to the causes that are important to young adults to properly ensure that future of New York will be will be in good hands.